Observation/Evaluation Today

Think positive thoughts for me this afternoon--my principal is in to observe/evaluate me while I teach my Grade 7/8 English class. No dog-and-pony show; the students are working on narrative writing so today we are doing a mini-lesson on leads and then the remainder of the period will be spend with peer conferences, conferences with me, revisions and (for some) frantically trying to finish writing their first draft. Nothing fancy or special, just what we would be doing today if she wasn't coming in. I'm hoping that she'll wander around, talk to the kids about their work, but I doubt that (she doesn't interact with students much). I'm hoping that she focuses on the big picture and doesn't get caught up on whether or not I'm following the plan I gave her exactly. I also hope that "that kid" who has a comment for everything can keep himself somewhat contained today--I can deal easily with his comments (which are often hilarious) but she won't be impressed. I also realized yesterday, while meeting with her about today, that this will be the first time in the five years she has been at the school that she has seen me teach.

Things went smoothly. The kids responded well to the lesson, but stayed true to themselves--they were funny and animated. At one point, one of the boys called me over and asked, "What's Mrs Principal doing here? She's making me nervous!" I have my de-briefing meeting after school tomorrow, but she buzzed in to my office a few minutes ago to thank me for a great afternoon.

De-brief meeting went well; in fact she was very flattering! She commented on my interaction with the students which made me very happy as my relationship with my students is something I am very proud of. Other comments: I'm providing the students with valuable, authentic learning experiences; there was a "buzz" in the room from the conversations the students were having; I provide an environment where the students are willing to take risks. I have a few more bits of paperwork to submit to her (which I need to pull together this weekend), and we'll have a further discussion in a couple of weeks to discuss my professional learning goals.

Enough tooting my own horn--we all need to take pride in what we do each and every day for our students. Good luck to all who have their observations/evaluations upcoming.